One of the focal points of Roosevelt’s community is Fred Meyer on the corner of Lombard and Ida. It is a place many students interact with daily, whether it’s food for breakfast, lunch, or an afterschool snack. The impact of Roosevelt on the local Fred Meyer has been a topic of conversation for many years as the students’ interaction with the store has also been coupled with large amounts of theft. These high levels of theft has led Fred Meyer to increase security policies at this location, some of the more recent updates are: having to get your receipt signed by a security guard before you exit the store, following the same model Costco uses, and students having to leave their backpacks outside while shopping. When conducting a small survey, the majority of RHS students polled on the Voices website said that they still see or hear of students stealing from the establishment even with the increased security.
When attempting to get interviews or talk to local and national managers, workers, specialists, and the PR team of Kroger and Fred Meyer, I was met with the same response. Each and every time I got a refusal to meet for an interview, even after interviews were scheduled, the Kroger PR team shut them down. Saying they aren’t taking any questions about security at this time. This was a stark example of how hard it is to get in touch with Fred Meyer about security issues. The only data accessible is an article from Portland.gov titled “ Enhanced security measures at Fred Meyer stores have positive impact” in which data from Fred Meyer executives is shared detailing that “Since the announcement, Fred Meyer stores have experienced a nearly 20% decrease of average incidents per month. Attempted theft at stores is down 36% and total loss is down by 51%.”
Even if it is true that it has led to less theft for Fred Meyer and other Kroger brand stores, it has actually led to theft of students’ property. As many RHS students will know, Fred Meyer security doesn’t let students bring their backpacks into the store, forcing students to leave them outside. An aunt of a RHS student posted on a Facebook group about her niece’s backpack that got stolen at Fred Meyer, “I get it that they ask them to leave their backpacks during [the]lunch hour but after school is out they have no other option but take them inside the store.” She also mentioned how all of the students, books, chromebook, and personal belongings were in that bag. The thing many find frustrating is that they make students leave their backpacks out front, but they don’t have anyone there to monitor them, even though there are numerous security guards at the store.
When talking to the Facebook post owner they explained that “I’ve been wanting to collect signatures to change this because on that day they stole three backpacks and this Friday they stole two more”. There is no indication who is stealing the backpacks but the bigger issue is that increased theft at Fred Meyer is partly due to students at RHS, is causing students to be forced to leave personal belongings unprotected just to get food, with no other option if they intend to shop at Fred Meyer. On top of that, Fred Meyer does not list no backpacks anywhere within their policies but claims they do, and as I have and many others have discovered, Fred Meyer is being difficult to reach, work with, and communicate with. This isn’t a clear cut issue as Fred Meyer also cannot just allow theft to happen at their establishment, but is this really the best way? It may limit theft for the store, but not for the students.
Update: As of March 11th Fred Meyer has written into their policy that it is not their responsibility if students backpacks are stolen.
